American evangelist the Rev Billy Graham, one of the world's most influential preachers who had a close relationship with the Queen, has died aged 99.

Rev Graham, a Southern Baptist minister, died at 8am local time at his home in Montreat, North Carolina, said Jeremy Blume, a spokesman for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

The retired evangelist, a father-of-five, had famously counselled every US president from Harry Truman to Barack Obama, and made many visits to the UK during his career.

He preached to his followers on radio and television broadcasts around the world for decades, and it was claimed that he had reached more than two billion people - from the US to communist North Korea - during his 70 years on the pupit.

Rev Graham had suffered with Parkinson's disease in his later years (Image: REUTERS)

The evangelist (second left) with his wife Ruth, the Queen, Prince Philip and the Queen Mother when he preached at Sandringham Parish Church (Image: PA Archive)

Rev Graham counselled every US president since Harry Truman, including George HW Bush (pictured) (Image: Getty)

Celebrations were planned this year as he was due to turn 100 on November 7.

Rev Graham and his wife, Ruth, who died June 14, 2007, had two sons and three daughters.

He had suffered with Parkinson's disease for many years, and also had other health problems in his later years including a broken hip, a broken pelvis, prostate cancer and installation of a shunt in his brain to control excess fluid.

With his steely features and piercing blue eyes, Rev Graham was a powerful figure when he preached in his prime, roaming the stage and hoisting a Bible as he declared Jesus Christ to be the only solution to humanity's problems.

Rev Graham and his wife Ruth on the Queen Mary at Southampton on May 24, 1966 (Image: Daily Mirror)

Rev Graham in Oxford on January 30, 1980 (Image: Daily Mirror)

The evangelist speaks in Hyde Park on July 1, 1967 (Image: Sunday Mirror)

Rev Graham and US President John F Kennedy (Image: Archive Photos)

He was such a powerful figure that he had audiences with royals and world leaders as he travelled the globe.

He rose to fame after he started hosting the annual Billy Graham Crusades on TV in 1947, which he continued until his retirement in 2005.

Rev Graham promoted racial integration and once preached alongside Martin Luther King Jr in New York in 1957.

He was the first noted evangelist to take his message behind the Iron Curtain.

The preacher was known for his steely features and piercing blue eyes (Image: Hulton Archive)

Rev Graham hosted hundreds of radio and television broadcasts (Image: NBCUniversal)

Rev Graham is said to have reached billions of followers over his lifetime (Image: Daily Mirror)

The evangelist with his wife Ruth, and daughters Anne, Ruth (Bunny), and Virginia (Image: Hulton Archive)

The reverend with Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney (left) and his son Franklin Graham (right) on October 11, 2012 (Image: The Washington Post)

William Martin, author of 'A Prophet With Honor: The Billy Graham Story', said: "He was probably the dominant religious leader of his era."

The author added: "No more than one or two popes, perhaps one or two other people, came close to what he achieved."

Graham became the de facto White House chaplain to several presidents, most famously Richard Nixon.

He played golf with Gerald Ford, skinny-dipped in the White House pool with Lyndon Johnson, vacationed with George HW Bush and spent the night in the White House on Nixon's first day in office.

George W Bush gave Rev Graham credit for helping him rediscover his faith. In 2010, when it was difficult for the evangelist to travel, Mr Obama made the trip to the preacher's log cabin home in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains.

Rev Graham with US President Bill Clinton (Image: AFP)

Rev Graham's followers pray during one of his "crusades" on November 18, 2004 (Image: Getty Images North America)

Rev Graham, a registered Democrat, told Time magazine in 2007 of his political acquaintances: "Their personal lives - some of them - were difficult.

"But I loved them all. I admired them all. I knew that they had burdens beyond anything I could ever know or understand."

His reputation took a hit because of Nixon after the release of 1972 White House tapes in which the two were heard making anti-Semitic comments.

Rev Graham later said he did not remember the conversation and apologised.

In his prime he had a thunderous, quick-burst speaking style that earned him the nickname "God's Machine Gun". Through his "Crusades for Christ", Graham sowed fields of devotion across the American heartland that would become fertile ground for the growth of the religious right's conservative political movement.

Rev Graham boards a bus in London on August 23, 1973 (Image: Daily Mirror)

President Ronald Reagan and Rev Graham at New York's Ellis Island on May 3, 1987 (Image: Hulton Archive)

His influence was fueled by an organization that carefully planned his religious campaigns, putting on international conferences and training seminars for evangelical leaders, Mr Martin said.

In a rare trip away from his home in his later years, Rev Graham had celebrated his 95th birthday on November 7, 2013, at a hotel in Asheville, North Carolina, where some 800 guests, including Republican politician Sarah Palin, business magnates Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump, and television hostess Kathie Lee Gifford, paid tribute.

The celebration featured a video of a sermon that his son Franklin said was Graham's last message to the nation. Graham had been working for a year on the video, which was aired on Fox News.